Message development, social media strategies, and speaker/media training for individuals and groups, so you don't get caught unprepared, speechless or without a message. I'm Washington, DC-based communications consultant Denise Graveline. Want to pick my brain or get a sense of how I work? Do it here.

The TED (short for technology-education-design) conference and its spin-off events feature short speeches of 5 to 18 minutes that push unusual ideas. For this audition, TED also is seeking creative formats, from presenting in front of a custom film, a "slide blizzard," or intense campfire-style storytelling. A straight TED-style talk is fine, too.

Better yet, TED's not afraid of the technical topic. You should by all means help your expert by sharing the "ten commandments of TED" with them--they're the rules that make TED talks so successful.

Here's the process: You make a one-minute video to show how you speak and any creative format you choose, and upload it to YouTube or Vimeo. Then send a link to your video along with an application. Speakers chosen from the video auditions will get to give their TED talks in front of a live audience of TED staffers and their invitees. Your one-minute video is due April 25, 2011 by 11:59 pm Eastern time. Check out the blog post for the full schedule.

And if you enter, keep us posted! You'll find useful tips on video for speakers below.

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